Well-known Oshawa realtor Lloyd Corson dies

Lloyd Corson

OSHAWA -- After hanging on long enough to mark his 71st wedding anniversary, a well-known Oshawa businessman and community leader has died.
Lloyd Corson died at age 95 at the Bowmanville hospital on Nov. 14.
Mr. Corson was known in the community as the founder of Guide Realty, as past president of the Durham Region Real Estate Board and an active participant in many local service clubs, including the Oshawa Rotary Club, the Royal Canadian Legion, the Masonic Lodge and the Oshawa Shrine Club.
Knowing his anniversary was approaching, a week before his death Mr. Corson asked close family friend and business partner Della Wilson to buy his wife Eileen Corson an anniversary card and milk chocolates. He asked that the card be something with the words “wife” and “friend” in it.
He signed the card and a couple of days later he began failing, falling asleep never to awaken again.
But he somehow hung on until the day of the couple’s anniversary when Ms. Wilson presented the card to Ms. Corson in Mr. Corson’s hospital room.
“Eileen went to see him on their anniversary. I kept saying ‘talk to him, Eileen, because I know he can hear you’,” said Ms. Wilson. “I think he was just hanging on for that magic moment ... I think when he heard she was there and she got her card, he let go. It was sad, but it was so special he hung on.”
He died later that day.
Mr. Corson was born in Oshawa and his father, Ben, owned the farm lands that are now the site of the Oshawa Centre.
In 1961, Lloyd Corson founded Guide Realty. Ms. Wilson explains that on the day Mr. Corson was set to register the business, he still didn’t have a name for it. That’s when he saw a group of Girl Guides selling cookies and inspiration struck.
“He was very businesslike, very much a businessman but he had one hell of a sense of humour, he liked people, he loved animals,” said Ms. Wilson.
He was also very active in the community, regularly attending service club meetings, golfing and curling. Ms. Wilson said that in his younger days he would take blind children bowling on Sundays and enjoyed playing Santa Claus for the Lions Club.
“When he was younger and had the strength he was into everything,” said Ms. Wilson. “He knew a lot of people and he was very active.”
The Corsons did not have children, but Mr. Corson is lovingly remembered by nephew Don Peel and niece Sharon Mitchell and their respective families as well as friends in the community and colleagues at Guide Realty.
The visitation for Mr. Corson will be on Nov. 16 at Armstrong Funeral Home, 124 King St. E. in Oshawa, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. The funeral service will be in the funeral home’s chapel on Nov. 17 at 11 a.m. Interment will follow at Oshawa Union Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate memorial donations to Lakeridge Health Bowmanville. For online condolences visit armstrongfuneralhome.net.